Poster of Panchayat S3.
Credit: Instagram/primevideoin
Mumbai: Panchayat director Deepak Kumar Mishra says there are at least two more seasons in the pipeline for the popular comedy drama series and the team has already started work on the fourth installment.
Mishra's comments come days before the season three premiere of the Prime Video show, starring Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yadav, Faisal Malik, Chandan Roy, and Sanvikaa.
Panchayat became an instant hit with the viewers when it premiered in 2020 and its second season also garnered overwhelming response upon its 2022 premiere. "We have started writing season four. For us, generally there's no break between two seasons. The third season is over and we have written three to four episodes (of season four) of the show."
"So far, we have thought about making season four and five. For season four, we have a clear idea, and there is a broader idea for season five," Mishra told PTI here.
Panchayat revolves around Abhishek Tripathi (Kumar), an engineering graduate, who for lack of a better job option, takes up the post of a secretary of a panchayat office in Phulera, a fictional remote village in Uttar Pradesh.
When the team began working on Panchayat season three, the director said they were 'careful to not get swayed by the popularity' of the previous two chapters.
"We made sure that we made the right content and retained the core soul of the show. We wanted to take the story forward organically. However, we have to make sure that the new season is more entertaining and emotional," he added.
Mishra recalled when season one of Panchayat started streaming in 2020, they were a bit unsure about whether the show would find an audience.
"As the show was in a different space at that point of a time, there was a theory about how much will be its acceptability. We had put in a lot of effort in the script in terms of creative ideas."
"So, we had that much confidence that if people watched the entire show, then it would be a hit. But what if they don't watch it? Then, there would be a problem. I have grown up watching these kinds of stories and I was hopeful that people will definitely accept the show," he said.
The third season of Panchayat, created by The Viral Fever (TVF), will premiere in Hindi, with dubs in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.